The history and practice of Industrial Design in Victoria Australia is my research interest and this blog include posts related to this interest as well as my practice as a designer and design educator.

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Friday, 31 August 2012

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced its Cary 630 FT-IR spectrometer has won the 2012 Instrument Business Outlook (IBO) Industrial Design Gold Award. Now in their 19th year, the awards highlight excellence in the industrial design of analytical instruments. This year's winners demonstrate how industrial design can improve a product's functionality and the user's experience.

The Cary 630 took a year and a half to develop. Key to the system's design was its modularity, which allows for different uses and applications via each of the five interchangeable sample modules. The color contrast and rounded corners create a modern appearance and integrated look. Benchtop lab spectrometers have been shrinking in size for years, and this has one of the smallest lab footprints to date. The 3.8 kg (8 lb), 16 x 13 x 13 cm (6 x 12 x 5 in) system is designed for routine applications, with a spectral resolution of less than 2 cm-1.

"We are honored to have our Cary 630 receive this recognition," said Philip Binns, Agilent vice president for spectroscopy products. "Building on our technology leadership, this award-winning system reflects our commitment to delivering products that improve the overall customer experience by paying close attention to all aspects of how our customers use products."

Award winning Cary 630 designed by leading Australian industrial design consultancy CobaltNiche.

To be eligible for one of this year's awards, a product must have begun shipping between August 2011 and July 2012. Candidates were chosen from the new products that IBO monitors through trade shows, trade publications, press releases and the Internet. Winners were selected solely based on their industrial design, not on technical capabilities or performance. Judges considered innovation, aesthetics, functionality and features.

Thursday, 30 August 2012

The links between Monash University and Southeast University in industrial design are being forged by the commencement this week in Suzhou China of classes in the Master of Industial Design (Double Masters).

Industry links will also develop with the opportunities presented by the research undertaken at the newly established Southeast University Monash University Joint Graduate School Suzhou.

One link that can already be made is the use of the Compumedics SynAmps2 designed by one of Victoria's leading industrial design consultancies Outerspace Design. The SynAmps2 is used in Nanjing in the Interaction Design Lab for students in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design. Monash University use the SynAmps2 in the Biomedical Imaging facility at Clayton.

The SynAmps was designed by Paul Taylor and the team at Outerspace whilst I was Design Manager so I know the product very well. The SynAmps2 is manufactured in Victoria, Australia and sold worldwide.

Compumedics SynAmps2 in use at Southeast University in China and Monash University in Melbourne Australia.

Callum Morton's work has often recalled specific histories, both personal and collective. For the Venice Biennale in 2007 Morton constructed Valhalla, a scaled-down version of the family home designed by his father; Gas and Fuel, 2002, similarly miniaturised and animated those twin Melbourne city buildings which first heralded then hindered notions of urban progress; his ongoing series of Tomorrow Land and Local +/- General prints graft contemporary retail and entertainment brands onto the protected icons of Modernist architecture.

In Evacuations, Morton looks to a more recent and site-specific history: that of the gallery space in which these new works are presented. Five of these six sculptures are modelled after a recent exhibition of paintings he saw in the gallery. The visual and personal content of those paintings has, however, been removed from the equation. Representation, image and detail have been evacuated. Re-presenting the previous exhibition as 'covered' canvases, Morton instead gestures toward a larger narrative than those depicted on discrete canvases.

Built from foam, resin, lacquer, paint and wood, the works in Evacuations are not paintings, nor are they cast sculptures of paintings. They are painted sculptures of covered paintings, constructed in turn by Computer Numerically Controlled router and by hand, layer by layer. Similarly to the paintings they have usurped, the Cover Up works are formed through a dense layering of materials, applied and cut repeatedly until the desired likeness appears.

Referring to the gallery as a site with a diverse and sequential story, Morton also suggests the possibility of the gallery as a series of rooms - different spaces in time, piled atop one another and, here, collapsed into one. Also present are more distant relatives from art's history: Magritte's paintings of fabric-covered heads, Duchamp's unnamed object hidden inside a ball of string, Mel Ramsden's Secret Paintings and Christo's wrapped objects. The attempt at complete evacuation has failed, as history and fiction remain.

The World Record Club lecture and exhibition opening tonight was a celebration of local design talent and our design history in Melbourne and Victoria. At every turn so many links with my own passion for recording and celebrating our design heritage.

Friday, 24 August 2012

Monash University Master's candidate Rob Eales’ research project aims to close the loop between 3D printing and recycling, by creating a system where items previously printed can be recycled in the same system. He believes online sharing of ideas and design will encourage a state of mass customisation. He envisages consumers’ tastes becoming more individual as they become exposed to more ideas and designs. ‘The plan is to relocalise manufacturing,’ he says.

Thursday, 23 August 2012

I had an opportunity to explore the new Microsoft Tech Lounge at the Clayton campus today and in particular experience Microsoft surface for the first time. The Tech Lounge includes two Xbox 360s with Kinect, a surface device, 17 laptops and three desktop computers.

Monash Tech Lounge - Microsoft Surface

Microsoft has supplied the lounge – designed as a funky common room – with computer hardware and software, and sponsored the design and fit-out of the space. The Tech Lounge is a partnership between Microsoft and Monash divisions: eEducation Centre, eSolutions, and Facilities and Services.

Paul Randazzo, Education Audience Marketing Manager for Microsoft Australia said they hoped the lounge would add value and excitement to the student experience at Monash University.

Microsoft PixelSense table.

Monash Tech Lounge provided an opportunity for Ian Wong - Program Director Master of Industrial Design to explore the potential of the Microsoft surface for studio collaboration or brainstorming.

“Built and designed with students in mind, the Tech Lounge is an experiential space that provides students with a place to study, play, socialise and interact with the latest Microsoft technologies," Mr Randazzo said.

Unlike its predecessors and most of its
competitors, the 900LC series integrated a number of 'standalone' components
within one compact enclosure providing a pre-configured plug-and-play solution.

A major project for both CobaltNiche and Varian,
the instrument introduced a number of ‘firsts’ for this market segment,
especially in the use of innovative twin-skin thermoformed moulding technology,
that offered lower-cost and provided extremely strong and lightweight enclosure
panels.

The instrument’s styling was a progression
of Varian’s corporate product design language also developed by CobaltNiche.
This style features pure geometries, consistent colour use and strong branding.

Friday, 10 August 2012

Melbourne Architects Studio505 designed the iconic hexagonal based matrix facade that encloses and identifies the Suzhou Culture and Arts Centre. Studio505 directors Dylan Brady and Dirk Zimmermann began working together on Melbourne's iconic Federation Square project where they also worked with Monash University Professor John Warwicker. The two projects are significant cultural buildings in cities located in sister states Jiangsu in China and Victoria in Australia. Victorian Premier Dick Hamer first established the Victoria - Jiangsu sister state agreement in 1979 and the current Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu has visited the region in 2011 to launch another major project by Studio505 the Wujin Lotus Conference Centre. The recent establishment of the Monash University China campus in Suzhou is another strong and significant cultural link.

Suzhou Culture and Arts Centre, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.

Suzhou Culture and Arts Centre, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu visits China.

Studio505 designed facade of the Suzhou Culture and Arts Centre.

The base building, designed by Paul Andreu, houses opera halls, cinemas, cultural centre facilities, galleries, gardens located on the edge of Taihu Lake. The dual skin and patterns are made from 16 unique tiles assembled in 42 selected permutations throughout the 24,000sqm of external facade.

Sponsors the City of Melbourne, RMIT University, Monash University and Sumo Visual provided generous financial and in kind support to ensure our talented designers are afforded the opportunity to present as Melbourne Movement at the world's premier furniture exhibition in Milan.

Shane McIlroy - International Advisor and Ben James - Business Coordinator from the City of Melbourne congratulated Melbourne Movement on the many outcomes from this years event and were delighted to see Federation Square feature in the exhibition stand design. Dean of Architecture and Design at RMIT University Professor Richard Blythe commended the initiative, commitment and vision of Kjell Grant and acknowledged the deep contribution Melbourne Movement makes to design internationally.

Professor Richard Blythe Dean of Architecture and Design at RMIT University emphasises the significant contribution made by Melbourne Movement to international design in discussions with sponsors and Melbourne Movement members.

About Me

Ian Wong is an industrial designer with over twenty five years of professional practice experience. Ian is Program Director - Master of Industrial Design at MADA Monash University. This double masters degree is delivered at the SouthEast University Monash University Joint Graduate School (Suzhou) in China. Ian has worked previously as design manager for Outerspace Design and Silvan Australia, and lectured also at RMIT and Swinburne Universities. Ian is a councilor of the Design Institute of Australia and President of Melbourne Movement.